Featherless
by snowflakesanddandelions
Summary: Chuck leaves Heaven for five minutes, and the youngest angel gets all his feathers pulled out- Gabriel, Castiel, Lucifer, Michael, Chuck, Enoch (biblical). No ships. K plus because I don't think there's any swearing or anything, but it's a little intense emotionally.
1. Chapter 1

Gabriel was doodling on a piece of paper, waiting patiently for his Father to come back, when little Samandriel came running in, face red from crying and looking terrified.

"Samandriel, what's wrong?" asked Gabriel, shocked.

"G-Gabe, where have you been?" Samandriel asked. "Big stuff is happening- bad stuff."

Gabriel scooped up Samandriel and hurried to the Great Hall, where Lucifer and Michael were arguing loudly. As soon as he set Samandriel down, the fledgling hid behind Gabriel, burying his face in his wings. Gabriel turned slightly and wrapped a wing around little Samandriel, hiding him from sight.

"It's necessary," said Michael. "I'm in charge now until Father comes back, and we will do things my way."

"Shut up," said Lucifer. "Don't you respect your elders? _Little_ brother. I don't know why Father left an arrogant little scamp like you in charge, but it doesn't give you any right to make such important decisions without any input from the rest of us."

"The rest of _you_? And who is that? Fallen angels? Most of them don't have the nerve to come marching back into Heaven with their baseball caps askew even _with_ Father gone. Surely you don't think any true angel will listen to you after you betrayed Father? You fell. Father rebuke you, Lucifer. You have no right to come here and bring disorder. I command you to leave."

"Ooo," said Lucifer. "I'm so scared. I forgot that Father left an upstart fledgling in charge when He ran off. You are so sure He's coming back, then? But what if He doesn't? You need a leader. And not some holified milksop of an archangel. Michael, you're no firstborn. What do you know of leadership? When you get tired of waiting for Father to come home and do His duty, just give me a call. I can lead Heaven just as well as He can."

Samandriel clung to Gabriel. Gabriel was glad to have someone to distract him from the argument. When he looked up, Michael and Lucifer were almost circling each other.

"I will rule Heaven until Father returns," said Michael. "Earth is dangerous. I will not have any more angels fall to your wiles. Every angel's wings must be clipped, to protect all of us."

Gabriel gasped. He was about to say something, but Lucifer beat him to it.

"You think destroying wings is a good idea? I will show you just what this means. Maybe you will find that you don't really see things so differently. Watch and learn, stupid little brother. I hope you feel sick." Lucifer snatched the youngest angel, Castiel, and started pulling out his feathers.

Most of the angels were too stunned to do anything but watch in sickened horror. The sight of their oldest brother, once the brightest angel, destroying Castiel's wings, pulling out his feathers mercilessly, one by one, shocked them so that they could not think. Samandriel screamed and ran out of the room. Gabriel let him go. He was sure Michael would stop Lucifer, but the second-born archangel just stared as Lucifer yanked out feather after feather, ignoring Castiel's terrified screams of pain.

Or was he ignoring them? Gabriel almost thought he saw glee in Lucifer's eyes. How could he already be so twisted that he could enjoy his brother's suffering? Perhaps Lucifer had gone mad since he fell.

"Stop," Gabriel heard himself begging, but Lucifer either ignored him or couldn't hear him over Castiel's screams. "Stop. Somebody stop him. Michael, please, do something!"

Lucifer smiled as he removed the last feather and tossed Castiel into Gabriel's arms.

"Do the wings of your brothers mean so little to you?" he taunted Michael. "I will rip out all of your feathers. You are no leader. Poor little Michael, look at him. He's crying," Lucifer mocked. It was true. A tear ran down Michael's cheek.

"Get out," said Michael. "Leave Heaven now, or I smite you."

Lucifer saw the glint in Michael's eyes and knew he meant every word. "Uh, 'nother day, maybe. I have some troublemaking to do while your Father's out of town. But don't worry. Someday we will duel, and I will win. It will be glorious. The look on your face as I slowly remove your pretty head-"

"Lucifer," Michael warned, voice low.

Lucifer waved goodbye and flew away. Michael sighed.

 **No idea whether I will write/post more or not. Reviews are always appreciated.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Been a while, but the reviews were positive, so I decided to add to this. Chapter 2 for your reading pleasure.**

Chapter 2

The angels scattered, Gabriel still cradling Castiel against his chest. Blood and grace were pouring out of several tears in Castiel's skin. A few blood feathers were torn off in the middle and leaking blood. Gabriel knew he needed help to care for Castiel, but he didn't want his own feathers clipped by Michael, so he flew to Earth. He saw Enoch in his room, quietly praying, and knew it would be a safe place to ask for help.

Gabriel knocked on the door and waited. It took a few minutes, but Enoch came out.

"Hello," said Enoch. "What happened?"

"You can see his wings?" Gabriel asked, a little surprised.

"And yours," said Enoch. "My name is Enoch. Please come in."

Gabriel ducked under the doorway, moving slowly and carefully so as not to jostle Castiel.

"Set him wherever you think he'd be comfortable," said Enoch. "Don't worry about the blood. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Father left Heaven this morning," Gabriel began.

Enoch frowned. "What do you mean? I was just talking to Him."

"I mean He's not in Heaven," said Gabriel. "He can still hear you, but we don't know where He is."

Enoch shook his head. "Keep going."

"Anyway, as I was saying, Father left this morning, and Lucifer came up for a little visit. He got in a fight with Michael and then stripped off all of Castiel's feathers. Castiel was the last angel Father created. How could Lucifer have it in his heart to do such a thing?" Gabriel asked, eyes smoldering with grief and anger.

"Why did you bring Castiel to me?" asked Enoch. "I'm just a man. I don't see how I can help."

"You love our Father," said Gabriel. "Besides, you know birds. I think you can help Castiel better than I can."

"Okay," said Enoch. "It is alright if I take a minute?"

"Sure," said Gabriel. "We'll be right here."

Enoch went to his closet and knelt to pray.

"Father, is it true that you have left Heaven? What should I do? I'm just a man."

" _I will sort the angels out. Your job is to listen to Gabriel and help him with Castiel. Do not worry about Heaven. Everything is under My care._ "

"Okay," said Enoch. "I will."

He went downstairs. Castiel looked like he was asleep.

"I'll help," said Enoch.

"Thank you," said Gabriel. "That means a lot."

Enoch carefully removed the torn blood feathers and stitched up the torn skin with a sterile needle. Then he gently bandaged Castiel's wings to protect them until new feathers grew in, but Castiel twitched and knocked off the bandages, so he gave up.

"That's the best I can do," he said. "He'll be okay, unless losing his feathers interferes with learning to fly. He won't be able to fly until a lot of feathers grow in. When is his next full molt?"

"Angels don't really molt the same way," said Gabriel. "I don't know when his feathers will grow back. But I'll teach him to fly personally if I have to. Thank you again for your help, Enoch."

"Will you be staying?" Enoch asked.

"Yeah, probably for at least a few days," said Gabriel. "I don't think Lucifer will look for us here, and Castiel needs to rest. He'll just wear himself out trying to keep up with the other fledglings, especially since he can't fly."

"You're welcome to stay as long as you like," Enoch told him. "I'm happy to have you here."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi, readers,**

 **This chapter has two characters who I'm not really qualified to write. Raphael, because I haven't actually watched too many scenes he's in, so he may be a little OOC. This may even be Raphael bashing. If you like Raphael and I wrote him wrong, I'm sorry.**

 **The other character is God. I love God, but I do feel a bit awkward about trying to write Him in as a character. Please remember I'm just a human fanfiction author. If you have questions about God, ask Him. God is the authority on Himself; I'm not. I just wanted Him in my story, so- here it is.**

God returned to Heaven. He found Michael and Raphael waiting in the Great Hall.

"Hi, Michael," He said.

"Father," said Michael, with a nod.

"How have things been while I was gone?" He asked gently.

"Not great," Michael admitted. "Lucifer came back and had the nerve to assault a lesser angel, but it's all under control."

"Is that what you call this?" Raphael asked. "Lucifer tore all of little Castiel's feathers out. And you let him. And now Gabriel is missing, and nobody knows where he is. As far as I know, you haven't done anything about that."

"It's only been half an hour," said Michael, getting a little flustered. "Gabriel doesn't have to check in with me every five minutes."

"Gabriel is fine," said God. "What each person does is between him and Me. I want to talk to you two right now."

"You shouldn't have left," said Raphael. "Let's just leave Heaven leaderless and hope Lucifer doesn't come back, huh? And expect everything to go wonderfully. Well, surprise, it didn't."

"You didn't know it, but I was watching the whole time," said God. "I didn't leave you. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to do what you knew was right, even if you didn't know I was watching you."

"I thought you'd left us," said Raphael.

"I was here the whole time," said God.

Michael looked embarrassed. "I let Lucifer tear out all of Castiel's feathers."

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, Father," said Michael. "Can You ever forgive me?"

"I have already forgiven you, but you will also need to ask for Castiel's forgiveness," said God.

"Will Castiel ever be able to fly again? Will you heal him?" Michael asked hopefully.

"Castiel will fly again, but he will have to wait until his feathers grow in," said God. "It will take time."

"I'm sorry I let Lucifer pull out his feathers," said Michael. "Why won't you heal him, though?"

"'Cause it's your own stupid fault," said Raphael. "God is punishing you."

"Is that true?" asked Michael.

"Michael, look at Me."

Michael obeyed.

"I chose to give you free will because I wanted you to be able to love Me and feel My love," said God. "But when I did that, I also gave you the power to disobey Me and to hurt others. Lucifer's actions and your actions hurt Castiel today. He will have to live with the consequences until his feathers grow in again."

"I understand," said Michael. "Where is Castiel? I want to make sure he's okay."

"Castiel is with Gabriel," said God. "He will come home in a few days. You can talk to him then and ask for his forgiveness."

"He's on Earth?" Michael questioned.

"Why'd you leave Michael in charge?" blurted Raphael. "He couldn't even keep Lucifer out."

"I didn't leave Michael in charge," said God.

" _He_ said you did," Raphael objected.

"Did not," said Michael. "I said I was in charge because God was gone. Maybe I was wrong, but I never said Father put me in charge."

"Well, you implied it," Raphael argued.

"If I did, I'm sorry," said Michael. "I didn't mean to come across that way."

"Well, you did, so you were in charge, so now it should be my turn to be in charge," said Raphael petulantly.

"Is that up to Michael?" God asked gently.

"No. Sorry, Father," said Raphael. "I just hate feeling like You're gone, and Lucifer is going around hurting everybody and Michael won't do anything about it. He just _let_ him tear out all of Cassie's feathers. How could You let that happen? How could Michael?"

"What about you?" God asked. "You could have stopped Lucifer just as well as Michael."

Raphael clenched one fist. "No, I couldn't," he argued. "Lucifer would have killed me."

"But he wouldn't have killed Michael?"

"Yes," said Raphael. A tear rolled down his cheek. "I couldn't do anything, Father, and you wouldn't. That's why Lucifer gets away with everything."

"Does he get away with everything?" asked God.

"It seems like it," said Raphael. "You should have made me the oldest brother. Then I would stop Lucifer. I would protect the fledglings like you and Michael won't."

"Hmm," said God. "How about you think about that, and we'll talk about it in a few days? I'm not going to make you more powerful than Lucifer, but it's important to Me to talk with you about the things that matter to you."

"Fine," snapped Raphael. "You do that." He flew away.

Michael shrugged and flew away after Raphael. He missed the look of love and longing that passed over his Father's face as His two beloved sons flew away.


End file.
